Friday, June 01, 2007

Why Playdough is Not for Children Under Three

I only have two settings, speed and crash. Today is crash. I have a summer cold, which is no worse than a winter cold except that nothing sounds worse than hot tea and chicken soup when it's ninety degrees outside. I have two social events this afternoon (the life of a hermit is looking more appealing.) So I have to get all my crashing in this morning.

It is always on crash days that the ducklings need a little something extra in the entertainment department. (Or perhaps it is on such days that I notice it.) Anyway, playdough seemed less terrifying of an option than paint. Of course it says "Not for Children Under Three," but we don't pay any attention to that because nothing but large foam blocks are suitable for children under three, and they just had a product recall because of the danger of eating them.

Throwing caution to the wind in favor of really serious crashing, I let them pull their picnic table next to the couch and play with it there instead of being immobilized at opposite ends of the kitchen table. I didn't put bibs on them. I gave them the green and yellow because those were already getting mixed and I figured yellow-green wasn't too awful of a combination.

The problems started when I tried to get out the green for D2, only to realized that D2 usually plays with the green. The trouble is, D2 drools. Rivers of water run down his face. Into the playdough. It gets stored like that and oozes onto the sides of the container with inspiring tenacity. So when I lay down the couch to relax it was while holding high in the air hands covered with green slime.

D1 has just discovered the word "why" and used it to good effect with regard to any rules about not touching the couch or me or anything else. D2 has already figured out the answer is "'cause." That should keep them busy for awhile.

Today D1 has been inquiring of people (the same two people, since that's all that are around) if they have ever been to a wedding. Then she took the green playdough and smooshed it on top of the yellow playdough in a large, flat circle, and announced it was a "wedding." I think she has a future in modern art.

It only took about five minutes for the playdough to lose most, but not all, of its interest, and for sports like Climbing on Mama and Ramming the Picnic Table into the Couch to take over, interspersed with refreshing the finger supply of playdough.

We wound up, of course, with playdough on shirts, jeans, hair, floor, matchbox cars (also not for children under three!) and couch. I think we came off pretty easy. I also think I'll just pretend I painted D1's fingernails yellow-green.

Our newlywed yellow-green playdough is out of reach on the dining room table, drying out.

1 comment:

CappuccinosMom said...

You just make me laugh!

That is exactly why my kids (2 and 4) have thus far been deprived of the joys of playdough!